One has to challenge the idea that rich countries need immigration to improve public finances and to meet the needs of an aging population. This argument surfaces from time to time in Canada and is now being promoted by the UK’s Office of Budget Responsibility. The problem is that some people make two major mistakes in economic analysis. They analyze economic problems in financial terms and they assume economic growth will continue forever.

When my economics professors stood at the blackboards they often drew an x-shaped graph. For the macro economists one line represented the financial aspect of the economy and the other the real or physical aspect. It is an important distinction and one that is forgotten when we get away from the blackboard. Ultimately the economy depends upon the resources we use to look after ourselves. To analyse the economy we need to be aware of what agricultural, energy and mineral resources we have with which to work.

We have problems using financial terms because of the way in which we create money. It is a sort of Ponzi scheme which collapses from time to time. Also the purchasing power of any sum of money varies because of inflation or deflation. Thus it is difficult to use financial terms to evaluate what is happening on the real side of the economy.

Another problem with claims we need immigration to pay our bills is the assumption that economic growth will continue forever and that population drives economic growth.

It is certainly a big mistake to assume economic growth can continue forever. We have used the most easily accessible agricultural, energy and mineral resources and it takes more energy to retrieve those remaining. We see this in increasing prices. (Marginal cost to use the economics term). As more energy is needed to retrieve the same quantity of resources, the potential for economic growth goes down.

If population were a driver of economies, why aren’t India, China and Africa the richest parts of the world?

Immigration is a difficult issue because it often involves humanitarian and racist issues. There may be humanitarian reasons for encouraging immigration, but this weblog focuses on economics and it is not clear we should see immigration as a solution to current economic problems. It could be that immigration will put additional stress on economic resources and make problems worse.

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Cover Notes

After my first family broke up I went to the University of British Columbia and did a degree in economics because I was intrigued by the way in which money is created and because I wanted to understand the dynamics of how we exchange goods and services.

I concluded economics is mostly about relationships and we should evaluate economic policies by how they contribute to good relationships.

We have two major economic problems with which we should be dealing. The first is that while we have lots of energy and mineral resources left on this planet, we have used up the most easily accessible. Those that are left require an excessive amount of energy to extract. The second major problem is that our so-called "market" economy is largely based on legislation which restricts competition and thus allows some people an unequal share of the agricultural surplus.

To deal with these problems we need to focus our economy on a policy of sharing in the same way that families and people in small-scale societies share their food. We also need a universal guaranteed income scheme AND a new way of creating money. This would be a tremendous transfer of decision-making power from governments and bankers to individuals.

In this book you will learn:

why the economic principles of marginal cost and the elasticity of the demand curve say it should be priced at 99 cents.

why relationships are an important part of economics.

what it takes to make a good relationship.

that our civilization is based upon a huge agricultural surplus which should be considered an inheritance to be shared equally by everyone.

how the financial and the physical aspects of the economy interact.

how money is created out of thin air and the problems this creates for our well being.

how we can finance a guaranteed annual income scheme.

how to become a part of the ten percent,

how not to become a slave.

The list of ebook stores from which you may download this book is at the top of the home page.

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